Safety door-operating mechanism



L F. OCONNOR.

SAFEIY DooH OPERATING MEcHAmSv/i.

APPLICATION FILED OCT-30,1919.

WWW/I entre@ stares PATENT @FFEQO JOHN F. `OC'JQL\TI\TO.`R, 0F CHICAGO; ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'VIO WILLIAM.' H. MINER, '0F i CHAZY, NEW YORKl f SAFETY DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISM.

Application ined october .30, 1919. serial no. 334,571.

l To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN F. OCoNNoR, a citizen of the United States, residin at Chica o, in the county ofCook and tate of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Safety Door-Operating Mechanisms, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in safety door operating mechanisms.

In' the operation of railway dump cars of various types, injury to operators has here# tofore frequently occurred, during the unloading operation caused by the' sudden loads imposed upon the operating shafts wheny the door operating mechanisms are released. Sudden loads on the shafts cause the latter to rotate rapidly and this has frequently swung the claw bar. or other 'operating tool in such a manner as to injure' the operators.

The ob'ect of my invention is to provide a Very simple and easily operable arrangement to be employed with the operating shafts of door' operating mechanisms, the arrangement bein-g such thatlost motion of any desired amount may be obtained -between the partdirectly engaged by the operating tool and the main operating shaft of the door` mechanism so that, when the doors are started in their opening movement with' the load thereon, the main operating shaft and the door mechanism will be free to rotate without causing rotation of that part directly engaged by the operating tool.

In the drawing forminga part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a portion of a dump car showing my improvements in connection therewith. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2. 4 And Fig. 4 is .a vertical sectional view corresponding substantially to-the section line 4-4l of Fig. 2 but illustrating another embodiment of my invention.

Referring first to the construction illustratedin Figs. 1, 2 and 3, 10 denotes a side sill of a car, andf110 a portion of the side wall or sheet. A portion of the main operating shaft of the door mechanism is indi- Speciication of Letters Patent.

' vention.

Patented Mar. 29, 19211.

cated at 11 and the same is suitably jour.

naled at its outer end by means of a bushing 12 applied thereto, the bushing 12 being rotatably mounted in a bearing 13 provided by a depending bracket 14, vghich is riveted or otherwise secured to the car structure. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the links or other flexible connections between gthe shaft 11 and the doors may be of any suitable type and preferably will be of that type wherein the parts vare self-locked when the doors are in closed position. In other words, the door mechanism proper,

when the doors are in'closed position, will bev such that 'the shaft 11 is free from torsional strains andthe shaft 11 will require a partial rotation in an unwinding direction in -order to release the linkages and permit the doors to swing open. I do not consider it'necessary to either illustrate or describe .in detail this part of the door mechanism since the general type is well known and illustrated in many prior patents and the specific form of connections between the shaft and the doors is immaterial in the use ofmy in- In carrying out my invention, I provide the shaft 11 with a sprocket wheel 15, the

same being preferably riveted tothe shaft 11 on the inner side of the bearing 13 so thatthe sprocket wheel 15 and shouldered sleeve 12 will prevent endwise movement of the shaft 11. downwardly, as illustrated, and at its lower end is formed with another bearing 16 in which is rotatably mounted a stud shaft 17 The latter, at its inner end, is provided with a sprocket gear 18 in the same plane as the The bracket 14 is extended sprocket gear. 15 and a sprocket chain 19'co- Y operates with the two sprocket gears 15 and 18 in the well-known manner.-

On the outer side of the bracket 14 the shaft 171s provided with a disk-like flange 20' 360". other words, the lug 22 may travel in a counterclockvvise direction with respect to. the lug 21, as viewed in Fig.`3, through an a'rc; slightly less than a complete revolution..

l The clutch-member A is provided with an outward' extension 24 of square cross section adapted to receive the usual claw bar` `or' other operating' tool and by which it is vdirectly actuated. lThe clutch member A is 'further provided with a series'ot shoulders v 25 `around its periphery with which cop'- erates a pivoted locking dog 26 mounted en Lthebracket. 14, said dog 2,6 being held by i a -c'am-v plate 27`also. pivoted to -thebracket 14. To hold the elementsvof the clutch or lostmotiondevice properly assembledv and also the sprocket Wheel 18, a throughlbolt 28 may be employed as clearly `indicated inrig.' 2.

The' operation is .as follows;y Assuming the doors in closed position and all of the 'parts as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the operator would lirst release the dog 26 -to thereby permit rotation of theJ clutch member A. I The operator would then apply the claw bar to the clutch member A and rotate `v lock the linkages, the shaft 11 Will. then be' rotated under the Weight of the load on theto the operator.

. be stated that in some nisms,l a lost motion of less than 360 1s the 'latter in 'a countercliockvvise direction which would cause-the inner clutch member on said shaft 17 toV rotate in a similar direc'.

tion upon the engagement of the lugs 22 and 21. yThis in turn produces rotation ofthe sprocket wheel 1,8 Which-'is` communicated by the chain 19 to the-sprocket Wheel 15 Aand shaft 11. When the shaft 11 has-been rotatedl through a small arc suicient to unsuicient Whereas in others a lost motion iwheels115 and 118.

sprocketI wheel 15 is of lesser diameter than the sprocket wheel 18 and consequently more than a complete revolution of lost motion is obtained between the clutch member A and the shaft' 11, as will be understood.

In the 'form illustrated in Fig. rangement of parts is identical with that illustrated in Figs. 1, 2'and 8 except that instead of using sprocket ywheels and a sprocket chain, I employ two meshing gear The diameters of the gear wheels 115 and l118 may lbe varied as in the case of the sprocket-wheels and explainedinthe preceding description.v The only difference in the'result between the construction shown in Fig. 4 and that illustrated in the other ligures is that the directionof rotationl ot the mainoperating shaft rela' tive to the direction of rotation of the 'clutch member 'A will be reversed, that is, in the construction illustrated in Figs. 1, 2`and 3, the shaft/111 will rotate in the same direc- -tion as thel clutch member A whereas in Fig. 4, the shaft 111 will lrotate .in the opposite direction to the rotation of the stud shaft or clutch member 117. l f

In a door operating mechanism, the=com bination with afbracketadapted to be secured to a `car and having a pair of parallelly arranged adjacent bearings, of a door operating shaft journaled in one of said bearings, an lauxiliary shaft journaled in the otherof said bearings,y power-transmitting means between said shaftsga clutch -element rotatable in unison with the auxiliary shaft,

and a tool-operated clutchI element coperable with the first'rnamedclutch, element and rotatable a predetermined distance relatively thereto. .I n y' ln witness that I claim thefforegoing I have hereunto subscribed my namethis v10th day of Oct. 1919.-

y f' JOHN F. OCONNOR.

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